Genre-ally Speaking: Six-Gun Snow White, by Catherynne Valente

Title: Six-Gun Snow White
Author: Catherynne Valente
Publisher: Subterranean Press
Publication Year: 2013
Read: April 2013
Star Rating: ****

The Quick and Dirty:

Valente adapts the Snow White fairy tale and replants it in the Old West. Our Snow White is the half-Crow daughter of a gem and precious metal robber-baron-type based in San Francisco—she lives a lonely childhood mostly ignored by her father, with only the animals in her backyard menagerie as her friends. After her father marries a cruel woman from the east coast, Snow White runs away to wilder parts of the West and has encounters with a huntsman/Pinkerton detective, a commune of (perhaps 7?) women living together in Montana to escape their pasts, and other hidden elements of the traditional Snow White tale. While it takes its cues from a fairy tale, this is definitely not a book for children—there are a lot of issues regarding race and the often-downtrodden place of women in history tied up in it. That being said, the book doesn’t feel preachy in anyway. The writing is lyrical and evocative, and poetic in a rough-and-tumble way that suits a fairy tale transpiring in the Old West. Expect some visceral gut-punches as you’re reading.

The Wordy Version (Spoilers May Lurk):

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I really liked the Old West-y style it was written in and Snow White’s voice, with people “cogitating” and “hollerin’” and other phraseology we don’t use so much anymore. I think the writing makes us really able to feel for Snow White with her double-whammy of being a) half-Native American in a white man’s world, and b) a woman, but surprisingly (or not) I was also able to feel for her stepmother Mrs. H, who you get the distinct impression is as horrible as she is due to her treatment as a woman throughout her life.

The Haul: Library Edition

So I went to the library today, and unsurprisingly returned home with more books than I had originally intended. Behold the haul:

Okay, okay, so it's really not all that many...it's been worse in the past. Most of these are possibilities for the WordNerds book club May pick, and I just wanted to be sure to get my hands on them so I won't run into the problem of the one we decide on being (of course) checked out when May 1st hits. I do believe the current front-runner is Gail Carriger's Etiquette and Espionage, although the longer a specimen of steampunk sits in the corner of my room, the harder it will be for me to resist reading it early. My main interest in the Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight is that it was written by an alum of the university Susan and I (and most of our other book club members) attended. Out of the Easy has been tossed around by book club before and has gotten pretty solid reviews, and another book club member suggested How to Lead a Life of Crime. I WILL finish catching up on Megan Whalen Turner's Attolia series soon, thus A Conspiracy of Kings (I seriously think that one's been in my possession for nearly 4 months now, between renewals and quick-returning-it-to-the-library-and-poaching-it-again).

But the real prize this time is Catherynne Valente's Six-Gun Snow White. I was astounded that the library had it--I keyed it into the library's search engine last night just on a whim, and sure enough, it was supposedly sitting on the new shelf. This book was published by Subterranean Press, a small press publisher of genre fiction which releases lots of delicious collector's and limited editions. I don't think this one was even published with a trade edition available, just the autographed, numbered limited edition of 1000 produced. It was released at the end of February and I feel like it was $60 before they sold out? (I clearly stalk Subterranean a lot and drool over the awesome things they release.) Anyway, I was a little incredulous that my small local library had managed to get a hold of this one. But sure enough, when I visited today, it was indeed as the interwebs promised:

Like I mentioned, this is sold out. I wondered if maybe some librarian ordered it for the library, hoping that when it someday got weeded out they could take it home (this is probably what I would do if I were a librarian). I was so excited that I asked at the reference desk if there was some way to know when a book was getting removed from the shelves and headed for the Friends of the Library book sale, because I would be really really interested in giving this one a good home eventually, but she said sadly there was really no way to predict or track that. She also thought it was really unusual that the libes would get such a unique sort of book, and confirmed that it was from a vendor they don't use very much. But still, wow! I will have to keep my eye out to see if they get more Subterranean books on the shelves via this vendor, or if it was a one-off. Part of me wants to just never give this lovely little lady back... XD If you're interested in checking this one out and weren't lucky enough to order a hard copy before they sold out, I do believe there is an e-book version available here. Has anyone else picked these up yet?